If you are concerned or curious about the local problem of homelessness, here's a way to help out in your own backyard.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) is looking for volunteers to assist with conducting Manhattan Beach’s homeless count on Wednesday, January 22 from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. Members of the public are welcomed and encouraged to sign up and participate.

To volunteer, register here.

LAHSA conducts an annual homeless count across Los Angeles County every January. This count allows stakeholders to receive official statistics of what homelessness looks like in our community.

For the January 22 event, the city will host a deployment site at the Joslyn Community Center at 1601 N. Valley Drive.

Volunteers will arrive at the Joslyn Center at 8:00 p.m. for a briefing. Then, working in teams of two or three, they will drive through an assigned census tract looking for homeless individuals.

The volunteers' job is simply to provide a tally; not to interact with homeless individuals. They will then return to the deployment site to report on their final numbers.

The 2019 count identified 22 homeless individuals in Manhattan Beach. That number reflects a decrease from 41 identfied in the 2018 count.

Nevertheless, across L.A. County, there was a 12 percent increase in homelessness from 2018 to 2019.

For more information about programs and policies on homelessness in Manhattan Beach, visit the city's homelessness resource page.